In the user equipment (UE) centric no cell (UCNC) radio concept, a UE is served by a set of transmit-receive points (TRPs) that are coordinated so that the TRPs appear to the UE as a one cell (or a virtual cell, a cloud cell, no cell, etc.). Although the set of TRPs has the appearance of one cell, the underlying network is made up of individual TRPs and the location of the UE has to be tracked in order to determine which TRP(s) should serve the UE. If the location of the UE is not tracked, additional latency and/or overhead is incurred when there is a need for a control or data transmission.
A UE transmits an uplink beacon signal at intervals to facilitate tracking of its location. The beacon is intended to be measureable, similar to a sounding reference signal (SRS) or random access channel (RACH) preamble. Different TRPs in the network measure the beacon and track the UE in the topology of the network by determining their respective radio conditions with respect to the UE. Additionally, the TRPs may also determine an approximate location of the UE, thereby tracking the UE geographically.